September 01, 2009

Posted by David Heinzmann and Dan Mihalopoulos at 6:55 a.m.; last updated at 4:45 p.m. with Daley Olympics comments

With little more than a month until the International Olympics Committee decides whether Chicago will get the 2016 Summer Games, aldermen and the Daley administration are unveiling new ordinances that they say would provide greater oversight should the city's bid prevail.

Ald. Manuel Flores (1st) held a news conference to pitch a measure that would empower the city's inspector general to monitor the Olympic committee if Chicago hosts the Games. Separately, Mayor Richard Daley's administration introduced a plan to let two aldermen sit on the organizing committee if Chicago wins its 2016 bid.

The proposal by Flores and other aldermen also requires Olympic
committee employees who earn at least $50,000 a year to file financial
disclosure statements that will be public information. Chicago 2016
does not currently release statements that their employees submit.

The proposal from Flores and three other aldermen includes many of the
same provisions
also in an ordinance that Mayor Richard Daley’s administration
introduced today. Flores (1st) said the mayor’s ordinance “does not go
far enough.”

“Our ordinance is the better ordinance,” Flores said.

The mayoral ordinance would see Alds. Edward Burke and
Carrie Austin be the City Council's representatives on the
organizing committee that will plan and run the Games, according to a
draft ordinance reviewed by the Tribune.

The finance committee, chaired by Burke (14th), has scheduled a
hearing today to consider renewing its formal backing of Mayor Richard
Daley’s plans to win the 2016 Summer Games. The proposal expected to be
introduced at the hearing covers several points that Daley and bid
leaders say will ensure financial oversight of Olympic business.

The measure calls for regular financial and operations reports to
the finance committee, as well as the government and business affairs
committee, which is chaired by Austin (34th). Bid Chairman Patrick Ryan
said the quarterly reports to the Council are part of an effort by his
team to treat alderman like shareholders in a publicly held company.
Bid leaders also say that contracts awarded in the development of the
Olympics will be disclosed and posted online.

Bid leaders have been battling criticism that they have lacked
openness all summer. After Daley and Ryan did an about face in June,
agreeing to accept full financial responsibility for the Games, several
aldermen said they were reconsidering their support for the Olympics.
But after a series of meetings with Ryan’s team, many aldermen have
said they are likely to support the bid.

Although the Olympics will be backed by public financial guarantees,
the Olympic organizing committee would be a private entity. Ryan has
rebuffed suggestions that the committee should submit itself to public
disclosure laws, citing the privacy concerns of the IOC.

For Flores, the new Olympics oversight proposal marked a retreat from his previous support of a plan to cap the city’s liability for Olympic losses at $500 million.

Daley recently said he would sign the International Olympic Committee’s host city contract, which would require the city to assume liability for any losses. All bid cities must sign the contract, IOC officials have said.

If the City Council were to approve his original ordinance to cap losses, even Flores said such a move “effectively kills the bid.” And clearly neither he nor other aldermen want to do so.

Neither the Flores ordinance nor the mayor’s proposal can be passed at today’s meeting of the council’s Finance Committee. It appears more likely that they will be voted on preliminarily at the next Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 8, with a final vote of the full council on Sept. 9.

Joining Flores at the news conference to announce his new ordinance were colleagues Leslie Hairston (5th), Eugene Schulter (47th) and Joe Moore (49th).

"Some are unacceptable. You know that, but like anything else they're put together with private money and they compete in the private sector. I think they have to re-evaluate that as well," said Daley when asked about the topic.

As reporters continued on the topic, Daley later said, "No, let's first get this (the bid). Let's not start criticizing them. You're way ahead of the ball. This is tough compeition."

Back at the council committee meeting, Bid Chairman Ryan took issue with the notion his employees are being paid too much.

Ryan said all senior 2016 officials could be paid “considerably more money” working for private companies.

“They’re all sacrificing,” he said.

Ryan said an official who is paid $300,000 a year could be making roughly three times as much in the private sector.

As for Daley’s comments today , Ryan said, “I don’t think he really means we should lower the salaries.”

Rio de janeiro 2016 bid president Carlos Arthur Nuzman presenting the bid specifications.The three levels of Brazilian government have guaranteed the free provision of a range of services to the bid, including security, medical services, customs, transport, immigration, and other governmental services and support.[126][127][128] Rio de Janeiro has already approved funding of US$240 billion from the Program for Growth Acceleration (PAC).[126][129][130] Other revenue-generating activities include sponsorship sales, ticketing program, licensing and merchandising.[129][131][132] These revenues will be supplemented by IOC-secured commercial and broadcast contributions.[126][129][133] Capital expenditure on infrastructure by the government or the private sector includes already committed and ongoing investments of US$3.9 billion on projects such as airport and subway expansions and construction of the metropolitan road arc.[126][134][135] The OCOG budget does not assume any capital contributions to the construction of permanent or legacy venues, other than for Games overlay, including the construction of temporary venues.[126][136][137] The balance of OCOG expenditures will be funded by the public sector, involving a combination of government commitments from Federal, State and Municipal levels.[129][138][139] The OCOG budget and operating expenses are projected at US$2.8 billion, with its Olympic-related budget, including capital investments in transportation, sports venues and incremental costs being US$11.6 billion.[126][129][140] The bid budget for the Applicant and Candidature phases is projected at US$42 million.[129][141][142] The Presidency of the Republic submitted guarantees to cover any potential shortfall in the OCOG budget, supported by the state government and local municipality.[143][144][145]

Hope and pray the olympic commitee is smart enough to give the olympics to a safe, not corrupt city like chicago.The city does not need more iron fencing even though daley's friends need the millions in income. Oh wait daley doesn't know a thing about friends with inside contracts. Relatives, they get no special treatment, just automatically get the jobs, but he doesn't know how they get them.

Any chance you could provide a link to the ordinance proposed by Alderman Flores? It's near impossible to tell from this article whether the proposed ordinance has any teeth. That said, thanks for continuing to follow this story.

Would this be the same city council that was responsible for oversight on the deal to lease our parking meters? And is this the same Ed Burke, the same chairman of the finance committee, who decided that the parking meter lease was too good a deal to pass up?

The Olympic organizing committee will be a private entity. Does that mean that they don't HAVE to report anything to anyone? Those mice in the city council will go asking for scraps of information, with no legal authority to demand that information, and the mayor's people will laugh and laugh and laugh.

Neither Burke or Austin represents me or is accountable to me. If they are asking for the taxpayers of the City of Chicago to underwrite this very risky adventure - they should have to report to the entire City Council on a quarterly basis, and allow every taxpayer in the City of Chicago the right to hold accountable their representative on ensuring this process is fair to each constituent in this great City. Burke, Austin, nor any of the other 48 Alderman should be given preferential treatment because they hold some stupid committee chair. If they want my skin in the game - I want my representative to have a seat at the table!

Legislation has been signed by the governor to make FOIA requests easier. Now Ryan and his profiteers would make it impossible for public scrutiny of the billions Chicago citizens will be on the hook for the Olympic games.

This is the final insult (their dog and pony show of an information tour, and the refusal to disclose the tax exempt declarations being among the others).

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

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